Jennifer Sophia Marteliz

Status:

Open

Missing From:

Tampa, FL

Summary:

Jennifer Sophia Marteliz was seven years old when she vanished on her way home from Shaw Elementary School in Tampa on November 15, 1982. She was one block from her family's residence on 15th Street and 109th Avenue in Tampa, Florida at approximately 3:00 p.m. Jennifer asked a friend to watch her as she continued to her house; her friend turned away for a moment and Jennifer disappeared. Jennifer's abduction remains unsolved and she has never been located.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Jennifer Sophia Marteliz was just seven years old when she vanished on her way home from Shaw Elementary School in Tampa on Nov. 15, 1982. She was one block from her family's residence on 15th Street and 109th Avenue in Tampa, Florida on November 15, 1982 at approximately 3:00 p.m. Jennifer asked a friend to watch her as she continued to her house; her friend turned away for a moment and Jennifer disappeared. She was last seen after school, at around 3:00 p.m., approximately one block from her home.

Additional Details:

Police searched the Sulphur Springs neighborhood on the ground and by air. More than one thousand neighbors helped with the search. Despite that extensive effort, there was no sign of Jennifer. Jennifer's parents were divorced in 1982, and she lived with her father and stepmother, but her mother had legal custody. Jennifer did not get along with her stepmother, and members of her mother's family had contemplated removing the child from her father's home. Both sides of her family accused one another of hiding Jennifer after her disappearance. Eventually all her relatives were ruled out as suspects in her case. Authorities suspected that Thomas Peter Welnicki, a family friend of Jennifer with an extensive criminal history for charges ranging from theft to drug possession to minor assault, was involved in her case. When questioned by police, he claimed to have a psychic vision of Jennifer's abduction and murder. He said she was abducted and strangled by two men. One of them, he said, was in his forties and had a criminal history, and the other was a blond man in his mid-twenties whom Jennifer knew and trusted, and whose conscience troubled him deeply after the child's death. Welnicki himself matches the description of the blond man. Authorities believe Welnicki's "vision" was actually a confession, but he denies this. He failed a polygraph about Jennifer's case, but this may have been because he was taking medication to prevent seizures. Welnicki he has never been charged in connection with Jennifer's case. Another man, Steve Visnosky, has also been named as a possible suspect in Jennifer's disappearance. He lived in the Tampa area at the time of her disappearance and owned a brown vehicle that was seen in the area when Jennifer was allegedly abducted. One of his neighbors reported that she had seen Visnosky unloading a large plastic bag from his car after Jennifer's disappearance in Pennsylvania. The brown vehicle he owned was one he used to drive from Pennsylvania to Florida. Visnosky died in 1992, and his land is now owned by others. According to an affidavit, the latest development came when a woman named Anna Cummings, who was just 10 when Jennifer disappeared, sent Tampa police Detective Eric Houston a lengthy email about Visnosky, who lived next door to her in Pennsylvania. Tampa police brought the matter to the attention of the Pennsylvania State Police, which obtained the warrants Thursday. In 2012 a tip led Tampa Police to Pennsylvania to search for possible remains. Nothing was found. Her mother self-published a book about it in 2011, titled "Jennifer, Where Are You?".

Case Last Updated:

Sep 24, 2026